I recently installed PYSDM so that I can access some Windows partition files via links on the desktop.Unfortunately the mounting process corrupted. When I start Mint 13 I get the following message:"An error occurred while mounting /Media/sda2Press S to skip or M for manual recovery"PYSDM cannot unmount the partition. I cannot find any reference to this problem on the forum. (Perhaps it's there but I can't see it!)Does anyone have an answer? I hope I don't have to reinstall Mint13.

CheersNev

Last edited by Neville on Mon Feb 11, 2013 7:14 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I tried that. Had problems with permission at terminal.Now I can't boot into Mint13!.I think I will sleep on it and maybe reinstall tomorrow.Perhaps.I will have to find another way of mounting a partition at boot.

NevEDIT I even tried booting in recovery mode but to no avail.The trouble is I don't know enough.

Glad you got it fixed. Shame you had to re-install though.Pysdm is a great tool, one I used to use myself, but once you've familiarized yourself with fstab a little it can be easier & faster to do it manually.Not sure what pysdm ended up doing to your system

If it makes you feel any better PySDM was removed from the Ubuntu 12.10 repositories ( and therefore Mint14 ) because they finally figured out it was written by children.

The next target for removal should be gnome-disk-utilty ( aka palimpsest, aka gnome-disks, aka Disks ). This one will take longer to purge from the repos since it was just rewritten by RedHat ( note: always avoid things that were "just rewritten" ) but clearly it never had a code review or any kind of adult supervision before it was released because it already has a slew of bug reports filed against it.

Mountmanager is another one that should go, and then there's ntfs-config, and don't forget about .....

I find templates is a better way to go. Here's a template for an NTFS partition:

Thanks Altair4,I do not feel confident enough yet to start fiddling with terminal commands that I don't fully understand.I will have a long hard look at what you have suggested and try to understand it fully before I start.Perhaps you could explain the meaning of each command.

The general syntax of a line in fstab is as follows: [device] [mountpoint] [filesystem] [options]

So in the line above:device = UUID=DA9056C19056A3B3: a unique identifying number for that partition.mountpoint = /media/WinD: It's the location where your partition can be accessed.filesystem = ntfsoptions = defaults,nls=utf8,umask=000,uid=1000,windows_names 0 0

defaults : A general set of default mount parameters that determines if the partition will automount, is executable, root controlled, etc..nls=utf8 : has to do with character encoding so that it can handle all the characters in the file name.uid : The id number of the user that you want to have as owner of the mounted partition. "1000" is you so uid=1000 makes you the owner of the mounted partition.windows_names : You can create in Linux a file with a name that has characters Windows does not recognize ( special characters ). This option prevents you from doing that.umask:

From a Linux perspective an NTFS partition in it's raw state has permissions of 777 - drwxrwxrwx. Umask represents the permissions that you want to mask or remove from the "view" you create when you mount it. Each position represents a type of user:

1st position: The owning user of the partition2nd position: The group that you want to allow access.3rd position: All other users.

So the line I suggest as a template will mount the partition to /media/WinD with you as owner, root as group ( the default unless you specify otherwise ), and permissions allowing everyone to access it.

That command does 2 things. It will mount any partition that is not currently mounted by following the instructions in fstab. But in doing so it will uncover any mistakes you have made ( typo in the UUID, there is no /media/WinD, it's not really ntfs, etc... ). It's easier to correct any mistakes before you reboot than to find out at boot.

Note: This template is for NTFS partitions. The template for an ext3/4 partition is a lot simpler since you don't ( can't ) specify owner, group, or permissions in fstab for Linux filesystems.

Please add a [SOLVED] at the end of your original subject header if your question has been answered and solved.

Thanks altair4,I will study and try your info when I get time.It seems a lot safer. Another method I have fount is NTFSconfig. The only problem with that is it is permanent; once set you can't undo, or so the article says.It's a real pity there is no reliable GUI method.